Durum wheat

I asked a Nebraskan wheat farmer that I know if he ever grows durum wheat. I use it a frequently by another name, semolina. 

Do you ever grow durum wheat? 

When I compare photos of durum with aextivum, I cannot see any difference. This is using Google images. They all look the same to me. 

This map shows durum is grown in Canada. (http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/floranam.php?genere=Triticum) 

I use durum all the time for noodles, pasta, and such. I like to mix it.

He responded with alacrity in a lengthy one-paragraph answer that follows. I found his answer interesting. I think might too.



My Aunt & Uncle in North Dakota always grew durum wheat & I was always surprised how much more money they made with that variety. However, durum wheat is a "spring wheat," meaning it is planted in the spring as it cannot survive winter temperatures. Durum wheat has never been grown in our area as our "winter wheat" varieties are much hardier &  survive even the most severe winter conditions. Winter wheat is planted in the fall and then goes dormant through the winter months. This past winter was absolutely the worst winter conditions I have ever experienced, due mostly because of the severe drought & incessant winds. This year the plant actually retracted below the soil surface so there was nothing to hold the top soil in place & my fields blew away day after day until there was drifted dirt, as fine as beach sand, dirt like snow drifts covering trees & fences. I have just completed hiring a neighbor who plowed the drifts of dirt as deep as mechanically possible in order to mix it in with undisturbed soil far below the surface. Thankfully we have had enough moisture to make that possible and though this will definitely not be a "bumper" year, I am amazed at the recovery of the wheat crop, though thin, the plant is very strong & lush. Normally the harvesting would begin the week of July 4-10, but this year it will be very late, probably more towards the July 15-20 (always dependent on ongoing weather conditions.) So far we have escaped any hail storms & we are very excited to get this year behind us. Because of my "slowness" to adapt to the new farming method of strictly "chemical fallow," where poison in now sprayed on the stubble fields instead of working the ground through the summer months. I have purchased the necessary equipment to switch over to the new method, but this year I will have 1/2 devoted to the new chemical fallow & 1/2 to the old method. I am hoping to purchase a self propelled sprayer with this years crop revenue. Sprayers are priced from $185,000 to $250,000, plus I will probably have to dig a new water well @ $20,000 & build  support water storage tanks. I hate to spend the money as my retirement years are swiftly approaching, but having the spraying done by "custom commercial applicators" is costing me a fortune. I have already spent $80,000 this year alone and that has been for only one spraying. In wet years, you may have to spray 3 or 4 times. All of my larger & wealthier farming neighbors have completely switched over to the new method and their wheat is possibly more thick & lush as it has ever been. My closest neighbor, the county's largest land owner, has been doing the chemical method now for going on 10 years and his wheat is so thick that you cant even walk through it. When I look at my wheat next to his I die with embarrassment. Also, our local grain storage elevators do not have the facilities to separate durum wheat from winter wheat and will not accept spring wheat varieties. I may have told you, but out of my 23 fields, I only lost one, whereas it was "adjusted" for Federal Crop Insurance purposes to producing only 6 bushels per acre, (the plants are actually counted by hand in several places in each field). That 6 bushels is then subtracted from my 10 year average, with the highest & lowest production figures thrown out of the calculation. With my established 45 bushel average yield, I am then paid for a 39 bushel per acre crop. Since the insurance price was set last October @ $7.11 per bushel, I will actually make more money on that one lost field than had I actually harvested it, since the current wheat market is now @ $6.45 per bushel plus I do not have to pay for the harvesting. That one field has now been mechanically destroyed and I have planted millet in it's place. The millet is locally processed by Penington Seed Company which is contracted by Walmart to produce it's bird feed mixture. If the millet crop is successful, it has a 90 day maturation, then the proceeds from the millet sale will be deducted from the final Federal Crop Insurance payment. D